The use of highway barriers have proven to be effective at reducing the number of serious injuries and fatalities caused by automobile accidents. Highway barriers have also proven to be effective at reducing damage which would otherwise occur to vehicles that became displaced from their proper path along a roadway.
Notwithstanding the proven usefulness and effectiveness of highway barriers, continuing safety concerns have prompted manufacturers of highway barriers to continue to exert great efforts to develop improved highway barriers which will further reduce the risk of injury to occupants of vehicles and damage to the vehicles.
To this end, particularly effective highway barriers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,123,773; 4,946,306; and 4,773,629. These patents disclose highway barriers which comprise a longitudinally extending container made of semi-rigid plastic material which is self-supporting and which has a predetermined shape. When the highway barriers disclosed in these patents are filled with water, or other fluid substance such as sand, chipped rubber and the like, the weight of the associated highway barriers is substantially increased and the shape is maintained. The highway barriers disclosed in these patents can be interconnected to form a continuous barrier wall.
Although the design of the highway barriers disclosed in the aforementioned patents has been shown to be superior over conventional highway barriers, a need continues to exist for a reinforcement system for use in connection with highway barriers which will transfer forces away from the highway barriers upon impact of a vehicle and which will distribute the forces in such a manner so that the support strength of an associated highway barrier system is enhanced. Such an improved system will prevent heavy vehicles, or vehicles driven at great rates of speed, from crashing through a continuous line of highway barriers.